know anyone who can"rebuild" an al mar?

H

highvalleyranch

Joined
Sep 13, 2006
Messages
31
I have a nice al mar folder my wife and son gave me years ago.
It's no longer produces. It's 4 inches folded, 2 5/8 inch blade with silver bolster and brown micarta scales.
Problem is that years ago it dropped out of my pocket, got lost on the concrete driveway and got driven over by the VW squareback! (that tells you how old the knife is!)
I managed to take it apart, straighten it somewhat and get it back together, and it works fine, but will not lock solidly. It snaps solidly into place but you can still force the blade out of lock. It' not a side lock, but a top lock.
Now I'm looking for a more knowledgeable person to rebuild the knife or guide me through rebuilding it.

Thanks
 
I can either do it for you (expensive), or walk you through it here.
Bill
 
Thanks for your offer. I don't mind paying, but after posting this and taking a close look at the knife, I see something that might help.
If I press on the front of the top lock, the blade will not force out of lock.
so the back part of the lock coulb be shimmed up somehow causing a tighter lock down. Right now the back part of the lock is below the brass liners by 1 mm. The front part of the lock is .5 mm above the liner.
Perhaps I'll knock out all the pins and see if i can get to the bottom of it.

Orignally, I had to flatten back out the brass liners. They were bent from being driven over. Luckily the micara scale remained unscathed. but the knife was five pieces when I found it. I even managed to find the hidden lanyard piece! The knife remained in pieced for a year till I got brave enough to put it back together again.

Need som pics?
 
It sounds like the spring that powers the backspring (lock bar) may be bent, or installed incorrectly. The backspring itself could be bent, but it sounds like a spring problem.
Bill
 
Thanks,
I'll take a look at it tomorrow. I took some photos, but could not load onto my server, so will try again in the morning.
Randall
 
An update on my al mar rebuild.
After posting last night, I was able to dismantle the knife and take a closer look at what what preventing it from locking up.
The spring bar was not pressing up hard enough against the LOCK BAR.
I could press down on the front of the bar and the blade would lock.

So instead of trying to rebend the spring, (broke a spring on my Hawkins 50 cal that way!), I decided to try another approach. I used some JB weld and made a bump on the top of the spring bar, thereby adding more pressure to the lock bar.
Also noticed that the liners had some wear in the holes, and these hold the spring bar plate in place.
So I added some JB weld to the holes, redrilled them tighter, used some better pins.
Put it all back together tonight, and it works fine and locks up tight. No as good as brand new, but good enough for everyday carry.
Just need to polish all out to new.
 
The JB Weld won't work for long. I wouldn't polish it just yet. You should have used bigger pins. This is probably why the lock didn't work right.
Bill
 
Bill,
you might be right.
When I get some oversize pins, I can drill out the holes and replace. But right now I didn't have the right size pins.
How do you normally rebend the springs?
 
More than likely, the wallowed pin holes are causing the spring to be weak. Changing one thing on a pocketknife, can cause problems elsewhere.
Re bend the spring? Why, just run over it in the opposite direction! ;^)
Bill
 
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